


Julia and Margo's Story Went Like This:

by lionessvalenti



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Brief Graphic Violence, F/F, Smoking, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 00:53:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13986948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: The one time loop where Julia and Margo were girlfriends.





	Julia and Margo's Story Went Like This:

**Julia and Margo met like this:**

"This is crazy," Julia said, and she tried to light her cigarette. Her hands were shaking just enough that she couldn't quite get the cheap plastic lighter to ignite, the flint sparking with each turn, but not producing a flame.

"But this feels right, doesn't it?" Quentin asked. His eyes were wide with excitement, and wonder, and a little confusion, but mostly, they were filled with hope. Hope that he wasn't as fucked up as he thought he was, and that she wouldn't think him so fucked up and they wouldn't have to go on their pity cycle. He wanted _so much_ , and this was it. And if she dismissed it, he would be crushed. "Like, magic is real and this is where we're supposed to be."

Luckily, Julia had no intention of dismissing it because it was everything her life had been missing. She had been in the dark for years and now she was bathed in warm light for the first time. "It feels exactly right. Fuck Yale, Q, this is -- it's everything."

"Everything," he echoed softly.

She tried to light her cigarette again, and though the lighter did nothing except spark uselessly in her hand, the tip of the cigarette ignited. She gasped sucking in a far larger lungful of smoke than she anticipated, followed by a few deep, rasping coughs.

"Sorry," said a voice, not sounding sorry at all. A girl with dark hair pulled back in an impeccable ponytail, wearing a short floral dress stepped into Julia's view. "I just thought you needed some help. I didn't mean to surprise you."

"You didn't," Julia replied, but after that exam, in the wild, uncontrolled magic she performed, it was insane to see such a small, controlled act right in front of her face. "Thanks."

"Anytime." The girl smiled, a dangerous, controlled smile, just like her flare of magic. "I'm Margo."

"Julia. And this is Quentin."

Margo's gaze flickered to Q for only a second before settling back on Julia. "I'm really looking forward to this year all of sudden." Her fingers brushed against Julia's wrist and then lingered at her hand. "I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other, don't you?"

"I have a boyfriend," Julia said quickly, even though Margo had said nothing about dating. She didn't need to. Her eyes and her touch said it all, and Julia felt it through the core of her being. She wasn't sure if she was convincing Margo or herself.

Margo plucked the cigarette from between Julia's fingers and took a short drag from it. "Not anymore, you don't." She winked and walked away, a plume of smoke following her.

"I..." Julia looked helplessly at Quentin. "I don't know what just happened."

He brought his shoulders up to his earlobes in a long, slow shrug. "I think you just got a girlfriend."

"She didn't even ask if I was into girls."

"Yeah, but... you are. And you're definitely into that one."

If he hadn't been right, Julia would have berated him for not being at least half as flabbergasted as she was. And later, when she broke the news to James that she wasn't going to Yale, she broke up with him as well.

* * *

**Julia and Margo fucked like this:**

Julia had Margo pinned on the bed, one hand holding Margo's wrist above her head, and the other was between Margo's legs. Julia's thumb teased at the tip of Margo's clit. "Tell me you're mine." Julia grinned, teeth bared.

"Never," Margo replied. Her smile was quieter, deeper, and smugly satisfied. She lifted her head and pressed her mouth to Julia's, and while Julia was distracted, Margo slid her free hand down to Julia's cunt. She pinched Julia's clit between her thumb and forefinger.

Julia gasped, and Margo just laughed. They were constantly trying to one up each other, to be the better one at everything -- sex, magic, any of it. If they could make a competition of it, they did. While neither would submit during sex, not fully, they both tried to be more on top than the other. It was always satisfying and never dull.

"Two can play this game," Margo said, shoving her first three fingers inside of Julia without warning.

"Fuck," Julia muttered, rolling her hips forward, grinding against her own hand, pushing it harder against Margo's body. Margo thrust forward in time with her, and for a moment, they were one being in space, tied together, floating, and sharing. They were everything and nothing and stardust and the every organism that created the universe.

It might have been magic. It might have just been Margo.

Julia's orgasm spread throughout her body like wildfire, and it kept coming and _coming_ , until she was lightheaded by the waves of pleasure. She slumped down onto Margo's shoulder, with loud, shaking breaths, both of her hands above her head, somewhere in the vicinity of Margo's hair.

"Did you come? Did you feel it?" Julia asked, not opening her eyes. She was too weak to move, her body still humming.

Margo kissed the back of Julia's left hand. "There was so much kinetic orgasmic energy coming off you, I'd be surprised if the whole house didn't feel it." She wrapped her arms around Julia's body, her thumbs tracing circles on Julia's back. "I'm really good at this, you know."

"Yeah, no shit."

It took a few minutes that was actually about half an hour for Julia to get power back into her limbs, and when she finally sat up, Margo was ready with a cigarette.

"Since you have a tough time with these," she said, handing it over to Julia, pre-lit.

By now, Julia had mastered a simple flame spell and was on to bigger things, but Margo never let her forget that first day. She smiled and took the cigarette, and leaned against the headboard of the bed. With a shaky hand, she took a drag, letting the soothing smoke fill her lungs. She was a little more centered now, and not so high past the astral plane

"Can I ask you something? Completely off topic."

Margo raised her eyebrows. "I'm an open book."

That was a stretching of the truth, but Julia went with it. "Why does Eliot hate me?"

"Who said Eliot hated you?"

"No one had to _say_ it."

Margo puffed out her cheeks and let out a long breath. "Look, we spend most of our time attached at the hip, and we like it that way. But when he dates someone, I hate it. And when I date someone, he hates it. And that's just how it is because we're codependent assholes who love each other way too much than is probably healthy."

"What happens?" Julia asked. She glanced down at her hands, not sure if she wanted the answer. "I mean, how do you get past it?"

"We don't," Margo replied. She grabbed the cigarette and took a puff before giving back. "After a while, we break up with whoever we're seeing and things go back to normal."

Julia bit her lip and dared to glance back up at Margo. "So, this is just a thing that's going to run its course before you go back to Eliot?"

Margo laced her fingers with Julia's free hand. "Who knows. Maybe you're the one. No one else was, so it could be you. If that's the case, then we'll work it out. But it's been like six weeks, honey. Until we figure it out, Eliot can deal."

"I don't want to come between you two." Julia took a quick hit off the cigarette before putting it the glass ashtray on the side table. "Maybe we could work something out. Like, the three of us. I could try to be Eliot's friend, too."

Margo shrugged with one shoulder. "If that's what you want to do, but my advice? Try setting him up with your buddy, Q. El's kind of into him."

Julia laughed. "I'll... bring it up."

* * *

**Julia and Margo danced like this:**

The spring cotillion was a Brakebills event like no other, with all the students donning pale pink formalwear to match the cherry blossoms that suddenly appeared all over the campus. It was a bit of a coming out for the first years, and along with a dance, each first year student was presented with a golden pin. A mark of survival, or something.

Julia thought it was a bit silly, but like everything else, Margo threw herself into it with an extreme intensity. She was the lead party planner, fretting over every detail from the decorations to the rosé champagne's shade of pink.

"If it's too dark, it won't match the color scheme," she said.

"But this one tastes like garbage," Eliot replied, shoving a glass flute across the table in disgust. "Do you want to be the girl who threw the party with the shitty booze? No. We're better than that."

Julia stifled a laugh from behind her textbook, and that snapped Eliot's attention to her.

"I know you're too good for all of this, but you're going. How much thought have _you_ put into it? Do you even have a dress?"

"Uh..." Fuck. She was always trying to get on Eliot's good side and never quite managed it. Instead, even when she hadn't basically insulted him, she always seemed to offend him in some way. He was insufferable when he knew you were trying.

"Of course she does", Margo said. "Do you think I'd get her a dress that didn't compliment mine?"

"You bought me a dress?" Julia asked, pointedly ignoring Eliot's intense gaze on them.

Margo shrugged with one shoulder as she toyed with a napkin that had been folded into a cherry blossom shape. "Can you afford designer?"

"No. I mean, probably not."

"Then consider it a birthday present. Or a thank you gift for all the orgasms."

Julia sort of wanted to be angry. Margo didn't have any right to just buy her what was probably a two thousand dollar dress, but on the other hand, she didn't have to go dress shopping, and Margo definitely had better taste when it came to this sort of thing. Julia wouldn't have been surprised if Margo bought clothes for their entire friend group. No one would want to be the schlubby one in the pictures.

And on the night of the cotillion, Julia looked amazing in the dress Margo bought. The long pale pink dress (a shade lighter than Margo's, but both dresses were darker than the rosé) with the high slit up one thigh was stunning and and Julia felt stunning in it. Margo had been right: the dresses complimented each other, Julia's low cut in the front, and Margo's a party in the back.

"Aren't I always right?" Margo asked with a smirk when Julia commented on it.

It was about an hour into the event when Margo was detained by some kind of party foul, leaving Julia on the sidelines of the dance floor. She gazed out at the strangers, and also her friends. Quentin was working his terrible dance moves, and Alice, in her gorgeous short dress with the high, hand-beaded floral collar, laughed fondly at him, and never let go of his hand. She'd never seen Q look that happy. She actually thought she might cry at the sight of him.

Arms wrapped around Julia from behind, and she smelled cigarettes and booze. "Hey, Eliot," she said, wary. How drunk was he? He never touched her, let alone hugged her.

"Hey." Eliot took her hand and spun her out, like a surprise dance. He didn't seem drunk, or at least not any more wasted than usual. His eyes were clear and alert, and he, of course, looked fabulous in hs pale pink, nearly creamy white, suit. "I'm going to say something to you, and you better listen because I'm only going to say this once."

"I'm listening," Julia replied.

"I was wrong." His eyes rolled up for a moment, like saying those words caused him physical pain. He focused back in on her and continued, " I shouldn't have been such a dick to you, at least not for this long. And if I keep it up, I'm going to lose her, and I can't do that."

Julia nodded faintly. "So, it's not actually about me. It's about keeping Margo in your life."

Eliot let out a shuddering sigh. "Yes. No. Look. Margo loves you and I'm ready to get on the Julia train. Can I just have a seat?"

She could have played with the weird train metaphor, but she was stuck on the thing he said before that. "Margo loves me?"

"You didn't know?" He poked her gently right between the eyes. "And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, Knowledge. Are we cool?"

"Yeah," Julia said, still lost in the idea that Margo loved her and never said anything about it. Maybe she had said something to Eliot, or she didn't even have to. "We're cool, Eliot. That's all I wanted."

Eliot gave her a mock half-bow. "Then your wish is granted. Now, join me for a drink of our newfound friendship. It's all cabernet under the bridge."

So, Julia drank glasses of wine and pink champagne with Eliot, and and couldn't stop smiling as Margo, who was the most beautiful thing in the room, approached them and pulled her close on the dance floor.

"I'm glad to see you two kissed and made up," Margo said.

"Yeah it's weird. He might not remember that in the morning," Julia replied, her hands finding their way to the bare skin of Margo's back. "Look, I know I gave you a hard time about the party, but it's really great. I'm glad you do this for everyone. Some us -- me -- we wouldn't get out of our heads long enough to enjoy something like this if it wasn't for all the work you put into it."

Margo scrunched up her nose for a second, and then sighed. "This might be the dumbest, most cliché shit I've ever said, but I didn't do it for everyone. I did it for you. Fuck everyone else."

Julia blinked a couple of times, and then her face broke out into a grin. "You wanted to impress me."

"Did it work?" Margo asked. She smiled, like this conversation had been her plan all along, but after so many months together, Julia could see the bit of vulnerability there.

Leaning in, Julia kissed her softly. "You don't have to throw a party to impress me, but you did."

Their faces so close together now, it was difficult to see the details of Margo's face, but Julia couldn't miss the darkened lust in her eyes. "You ready to get out of here?" Margo asked.

Julia pulled back only far enough to grab Margo's hand and pull her toward the door. They waved a brief farewell to their friends and walked out into the cool spring evening. The full moon hung high above them, lighting the path, but Julia's eyes were only on Margo.

Until something crunched under her foot.

"What the hell?" Julia muttered, stepping aside to see what she'd crushed with her white high heel sandal. She released Margo and leaned over to pick up a dead, oversized moth. She'd never seen one quite that large. "Where did that come from?"

But Margo didn't respond. Her eyes were wide with dread, and staring not at the moth in Julia's hand, but straight ahead. Julia followed her gaze, and strewn across the lawns of Brakebills were thousands of dead moths.

Julia's mouth went dry. "That can't be good."

* * *

**Julia and Margo died like this:**

Despite the battle that loomed in their future, Julia still couldn't quite shake the excitement of wandering through Fillory. It wasn't like the books, it was dangerous and they could possibly die, but it was Fillory. _Her_ Fillory. Q's Fillory. It was different, but it was still theirs.

They walked through the forest in twos: Alice and Quentin lead the way, talking quietly together, though most of that may have been Q pointing out different Filliorian attributes, not deterred by the dangers Fillory presented.

Eliot and Penny came next, and Julia knew little about Penny, besides being an aggressive guy in her year who couldn't manage to button his shirts all the way. He was Quentin's acquaintance, and a traveler, who had been to Fillory before any of the rest of them even knew Fillory was real. He and Eliot walked in silence, neither of them caring much for each other, though it was hardly personal - Penny didn't seem to like anyone.

Julia and Margo brought up the rear, Margo touting a large axe over one shoulder. She'd traded it the day before for a Stila lipstick she had in her purse. The blade had been made by dwarves, with a thick wooden handle that was wrapped in thin leather strips, and had been enchanted to feel only a third of its true weight. She looked incredibly ready to face the Beast, while Julia's hands wouldn't stop shaking.

"If you can't light a cigarette with those hands, how are you going to cast our spell?" Margo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I can cast, don't worry about that," Julia replied. She wasn't worried about being able to do her part of the spell. She was worried about it _working_. "How do you look so calm?"

Margo shrugged. "Bigass axe."

Julia laughed, more high pitched and worried than she normally sounded. "Well, I just have magic that I better not fuck up."

"Hey." Margo stopped, setting the head of her axe on the ground, the handle leaning up against her leg. "You're doing the magic with me. When he shows up, you forget about that Beast, and you look at me. Cause when you look at me, you're not going to be seeing anything else."

"I know." Julia took Margo's face in her hands. They weren't shaking anymore. "I love you."

Margo smiled and leaned in closer, resting her forehead to Julia's. "I know you do, baby."

It was easy for Julia to get lost in Margo's kiss. Margo was made of confidence, and Julia was part of her. She was everything that made Margo amazing. They were stronger together. If they were in this together, they could conquer anything.

It was the snapping of a twig and the flutter of wings that broke them apart. They pulled away from each other, Margo grabbing her axe, and Julia's hands rising to cast.

"Eliot!" Margo screamed, her voice sounding through the forest like the call of a horn. "He's here!"

Julia pressed her palms together and then slid her hands to each side, so her fingers were pressed flat against the opposite wrist, then her palms glided against each other until only the pads of her middle fingers were touching. Her fingers spread before she brought her index fingers back into twist around the middle fingers, and then pulled her hands apart slowly, building a barrier of energy to separate herself and Margo from the Beast.

Julia let out a surprised little shriek as the barrier exploded, and the Beast approached them. She could hear the others running back toward them, but for a split second, she was sure it wouldn't be fast enough. They needed everyone for the spell to work. There wasn't anything she could do until they got there except try to fend him off.

She raised her shaking hands to cast again, to attempt another spell, but the closer the Beast came, the more fear fueled her. There was no way anything she'd cast would be at full strength, not like this.. She glanced at Margo, who looked not terrified, but strong. She was her own shade of beast, ready for this moment.

Julia turned turned back to the Beast, pulling from the deep well of battle magic they'd worked so hard to learn, but the moment she raised her hands to him, her neck snapped. Instead of falling, her body hung in the air, like a puppet, neck lolling to the side with nothing to hold it upright. Her body folded backwards, her back fracturing in three different places, each with a loud pop. Her elbows snapped the wrong way, and her knees cracked backwards. Her body then fell into a broken heap on the ground.

Margo watched this, eyes wide. She knew the others were behind her, that Quentin had just watched his best friend die, just as she watched her girlfriend become a horror show. They could technically still do the spell. It wouldn't be a strong, not without Julia, but they could still try.

Instead, Margo gripped the handle of her axe tighter and charged the Beast. "You shouldn't have done that, you faceless fuck."

And everything went black.

* * *

"Fuck Yale, Q. This is everything."

"You're right," Quentin replied, a grin spreading across his face. "It's everything. It's everything we knew was real and told ourselves it couldn't be, but it is."

Julia tried to light her cigarette one last time before throwing the lighter into the nearest trash can. "Piece of shit. What do you say we go celebrate? We just got into magic school. Magic is _real_."

"Celebrations are in order." Q linked his arm through hers and they started toward the edge of campus. They passed a girl in a floral dress, but Julia never gave her a second glance.


End file.
